Publishing in April 2024

The city of Hamilton decided to establish a park on its old city rubbish dump but there was initially no budget for development or plans to make it different from any other traditional public park. However, through strong community support and sponsorship, a unique form of garden has gradually emerged that’s now being recognised as one of the great gardens of the world.

Peter Sergel, the mastermind behind Hamilton Gardens, explains the story Hamilton Gardens has been designed to tell, which is the history of humanity and the series of transformations that have created the modern world.

‘The main purpose of this book is to show that Hamilton Gardens has a serious and quite unique concept with its own integrity. Like a play, movie, or the various instruments in an orchestra, if you take bits out, it loses a lot of its meaning, validity, and impact. It explains each existing and proposed garden in the collection and how gardens can help us understand the world. It’s also the story of Hamilton Gardens’ transformation from a city dump to a must-see visitor attraction. Each completed or proposed garden is a piece of a puzzle that collectively reveals the context, meaning and history of gardens, and how each form of garden reflects a significant step in the development of civilisation.’ The author and mastermind behind Hamilton Gardens, Peter Sergel, fits all of those pieces together for the first time.

The Hamilton Gardens concept is about the history of gardens, rather than gardens from every country, there’s less understanding of how each form of garden reflects a significant step in the development of civilisation, which is a major reason for this book.

The New Zealand city of Hamilton had plans to develop a park on their old city rubbish dump but initially, there was no budget for development or plans to make it different from any other traditional public park. However, through strong community support and sponsorship, a unique form of garden has gradually emerged that’s becoming recognised as one of the great gardens of the world. In 2023 Tripadvisor rated it as ‘one of the top three must-see destinations in New Zealand’.

Peter Sergel has written a book that’s a little like those gardens, with an original, extensively researched concept and some unpredictable twists, turns and revelations. He explains the hidden meanings behind Hamilton Gardens along with the story of its development into what is essentially a unique modern museum that tells the story of humanity.

Photographs by Grant Sheehan; this book follows on from the Phantom House Landscapes series, which includes The Night Watchers, Eye in the Sky: A Drone above New Zealand, Lights in the Landscape: Lighthouses of New Zealand, New Zealand Landscapes: Northland to Antarctica, and the award-winning Ghosts in the Landscape.